One way in which access to systems or devices can be controlled is through authentication of the user, such as by capturing a user's fingerprint with a fingerprint sensor and authenticating the captured fingerprint. However, current fingerprint sensors are not without their problems. One such problem is that fingerprint authentication oftentimes requires a high resolution fingerprint sensor in order to capture sufficient data identifying the pattern of the fingerprint. The use of such high resolution fingerprint sensors can be expensive in terms of both price and power usage, reducing the desirability of using such fingerprint sensors in devices.